The invention relates to a method and a device for drying rice, in particular paddy rice.
When drying rice, care needs to be taken that the grains of rice experience as little degradation as possible, for example cracking and/or excessive discolorations, during the drying process.
Excessively strong and rapid drying at high temperature, low relative air humidity and strong air circulation (high drying power) causes shrinkage stresses which generally lead to cracks or splits in the grains of rice during or after their drying. The rice dried in this way then readily disintegrates into individual pieces during milling.
Furthermore, “aggressive” drying of this type promotes Maillard reactions on the grains of rice during their drying, which leads to the aforementioned discolorations.
In addition, the drying times hitherto achieved for the drying of rice are still unsatisfactorily long.